environment.

(2) If there is much to be done in the prevention of crime, there is
also much to be done in insuring the prompt conviction of offenders.
The legal delays and obtrusion of the technicalities which now so often
obstruct the administration of justice, hold out a means to the
criminal of escaping punishment, work hardship to the poor, who cannot
afford to employ the sharpest lawyers, and needlessly retard the
clearing of the reputation of the innocent. The overuse of the plea
of insanity has become latterly a public scandal. In certain courts
it has sometimes seemed impossible to convict a criminal who has plenty
of money or strong political influence. In other cases such men have
been set free on bail and proceeded to further may have to wait years
for compensation; if they are poor, they may hesitate to set out on
the long and dubious course of a lawsuit; or, if they embark upon it,
it is only by an agreement wherein the speculator- lawyer takes the
lion's share of the compensation. The result of all this friction in
the machinery of the courts is an increase in crime, and an increase
in the illegal punishment of crime. Lynching, which are such a disgrace
to this country, are due primarily to indignation at crime which bids
fair to be inadequately punished; they will occur, in spite of their
injustice and brutality, until the penalties of the law are made
universally prompt and sure and fair.[Footnote: See J. E. Cutler, Lynch
Law. Outlook, vol. 99, p. 706.] A wholesome disregard of
technicalities, and an interpretation of the law in the line of equity,
a rigid exclusion of irrelevant evidence and argument, the provision
of an adequate number of courts to prevent the piling up of cases,
and of a public defender, of skill and training, to look after the
interests of the poor, the removal of judgeships from politics by the
general improvement of our political system, and the adjudgment of